Sharon Tate

Manson cult member Leslie Van Houten, serving a life term for a 1969 killing spree that left actress Sharon Tate and six others dead, lost again in her request for parole. The California Board of Prison Terms Wednesday denied parole for a fifth time to Van Houten, 36, who sat quietly during the proceeding at the California Institution for Women. A parole board spokesman said she was unsuitable for freedom because her crime "literally shocked the conscience of our society." She can request parole again next year.

George Bush`s presidency may be judged best by historians in the next century, but at least one positive note in his term is worthy right now of its growing respect. Four years ago, when Bush first brought up his Points of Light plan, it was greeted with a fair amount of ridicule. Now, though, it is seen widely as a genuinely worthwhile way to salute all those Americans who volunteer their time and energy to help the less fortunate among us. It also drives home Bush`s message, that government alone cannot solve the nation`s social ills.

George Bush`s presidency may be judged best by historians in the next century, but at least one positive note in his term is worthy right now of its growing respect. Four years ago, when Bush first brought up his Points of Light plan, it was greeted with a fair amount of ridicule. Now, though, it is seen widely as a genuinely worthwhile way to salute all those Americans who volunteer their time and energy to help the less fortunate among us. It also drives home Bush`s message, that government alone cannot solve the nation`s social ills.

One cold morning last February, Stephen Kay, a tall, deaconish Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, drove to California`s San Quentin penitentiary for the latest in his nearly 20 years of confrontations with Charles Manson, mastermind of the mass murders that badly rattled the nation in August 1969. Manson, led from his single cell, was long past trying to make an ingratiating impression on the three-man Board of Prison Terms panel deciding whether to grant him a future parole date.

One cold morning last February, Stephen Kay, a tall, deaconish Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, drove to California`s San Quentin penitentiary for the latest in his nearly 20 years of confrontations with Charles Manson, mastermind of the mass murders that badly rattled the nation in August 1969. Manson, led from his single cell, was long past trying to make an ingratiating impression on the three-man Board of Prison Terms panel deciding whether to grant him a future parole date.

Guns N' Roses will pay royalties from a song written by Charles Manson to the son of one of the mass murderer's victims, Geffen Records announced on Wednesday. To avoid paying royalties to Manson, Geffen said it asked to be served with a 1971 court judgment won by Bartek Frykowski, a father of two in Poland. Frykowski was 13 in 1969 when his father, Wojiciech Frykowski, was killed along with actress Sharon Tate and five others by Manson and his cult followers. The song, Look At Your Game Girl, is an uncredited bonus track on Guns N' Roses new album The Spaghetti Incident?

In 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, killing 74,000. -- In 1974, Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency became effective at noon. -- In 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four others were found brutally murdered in her Los Angeles home; Charles Manson and his disciples were later convicted of the crime. -- In 1995, Jerry Garcia, lead singer of the Grateful Dead, died in San Francisco of a heart attack at 53. Thought for today: "The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."

Robert A. Houghton, Los Angeles Police Department assistant chief who headed the investigation into the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and wrote a book about it called Special Unit Senator, has died. He was 84. Mr. Houghton, who also headed the inquiry into the Tate-La Bianca murders by Charles Manson's followers, died on Dec. 31 in Northridge Hospital , said his friend, Larry Barnard. When Mr. Houghton's book was published in 1970, Los Angeles Times book reviewer Robert Kirsch called it a "taut and complete account of [in the author's words)

Paul J. Fitzgerald, the lead defense lawyer in the murder trial of Charles Manson and three young women who were his followers, died on Oct. 1 at his Beverly Hills, Calif., home. He was 64. The cause was heart disease, his family said. Mr. Fitzgerald was a Los Angeles public defender in 1969 when he was assigned to defend one of the followers, Patricia Krenwinkel. The defendants were accused of the murders of seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate. The defendants went on trial in Los Angeles in 1970, a year after the killings at Tate's home in Benedict Canyon above Beverly Hills.

Manson cult member Leslie Van Houten, serving a life term for a 1969 killing spree that left actress Sharon Tate and six others dead, lost again in her request for parole. The California Board of Prison Terms Wednesday denied parole for a fifth time to Van Houten, 36, who sat quietly during the proceeding at the California Institution for Women. A parole board spokesman said she was unsuitable for freedom because her crime "literally shocked the conscience of our society." She can request parole again next year.

Roman Polanski may not only return to the United States, he may even land on Broadway. It's been more than 20 years since Polanski went on the lam to Europe rather than face statutory-rape charges in the States. Now, Austrian producer Andrew Braunsberg says that Polanski's spooky flick The Fearless Vampire Killers, which has become a hit musical in Europe, just might make it to the Great White Way by the end of the year, possibly with Polanski directing. "He adores America, he's in love with it," Braunsberg tells us. "He named his new baby Elvis, and he would love to come back and work in the States.

"When I told my dad my idea," recalls Greg Smith, 27, of Los Angeles, "he said he thought it was the ultimate in bad taste. I knew I was onto something." In late October, Smith`s company, Grave Line Tours, began offering Hollywood visitors something new in celebrity tours -- "a lively look at the death-styles of the rich and famous." Twice a day tourists, who pay "$25 per body," receive a complimentary calla lily as they board the Grave Line van in front of Mann`s Chinese Theater. The van -- a redesigned hearse -- then departs for a 2 1/2-hour tour of the sites of "Hollywood`s most notorious murders, suicides and scandals."